Quote Originally Posted by dj_bytedisaster View Post
Does have nothing to do with that. Nico isn't very popular in Germany, so no PR value. If they wanted to make the most of a German WDC, they would have ditched either Lewis or Nico for Wehrlein, who is very popular, especially among woman folk.

The striking thing is, that Lauda personally got Lewis to Mercedes and was his biggest team-internal champion since day one, up to the point that, being a comercially rated pilot, he personally piloted Lewis's private jet (for instance after China '14). Sometime between Austin '15 and the start of this season there must have been massive fall-out between lewis and Lauda, because this year he's turned into Lewis's most vocal critic.
I think it would explain the emerging isolation of Hamilton within the Mercedes camp; if he has lost one of his most influential supporter within the upper echelon of the team. How he managed that is very much of interest. If we go by Spielberg, Toto do not seem to be warm to Hamilton either. And the British lot have been very quiet or neutral in their comments about it so far anyway.

The situation is hard to read very clearly. But one aspect that seem to be emerging more clearly is the support that Rosberg is commanding, is a lot higher this year than for Hamilton. This sort of swing of support would typically occur where a driver, wittingly or unwittingly disrespects his team. Hence the swing of support to Rosberg, may not be anything to do with his German roots. But simply a reaction to something that we are not privy to, that Hamilton may have said or done.